Batting

Patchogue, NY – The USMMA baseball team completed a double header sweep of John Jay Friday afternoon with 9-4 and 17-3 triumphs over the Bloodhounds. Warren Hartmann (Wyckoff, NJ) continued his hot start to the season with a 6-for-7 day at the plate along with seven RBI and three stolen bases. The Mariners stole 12 bases in the twin bill and racked up 25 total hits.

John Jay (0-5) had the first scoring opportunity of the first game after USMMA committed two errors in the opening inning. However, Nestor Amarante would line into a double play to end the threat and keep the game scoreless. The Mariners scratched out the breakthrough run of the afternoon in the fourth inning with a passed ball and an errant throw following an Andrew MacKinnon (Buffalo, NY) double.

Merchant Marine () broke the game open in the fifth inning, hanging up six runs against the Bloodhounds. Jacob Wood (Richmond, VA) roped a two-run triple to the right-center field gap and trotted home on a Matthew Thomson (Memphis, TN) single. Two batters later, Hartmann notched his own two RBI triple to push the USMMA cushion to 6-1. Danny Collins (Sleepy Hollow, NY) accounted for the final Mariner tally of the inning with a RBI single.

The Bloodhounds posted three runs in the sixth inning with the help of three Merchant Marine errors in the field. USMMA added two insurance runs in its half of the sixth as Hartmann put a two-run single through a drawn-in infield. Kyle Clausen (Southold, NY) pitched six innings and allowed just two earned runs to secure his second victory of the year. Brad Suciu (Zanesville, OH) tossed a scoreless seventh inning in relief to seal the 9-4 victory in game one of the double header.

USMMA put game two out of reach quickly, scoring multiple runs in each of the first four innings. The Mariners scored five times in their first turn at-bat as Hartmann, Cameron Stadele (Alpharetta, GA), Jake Martin (San Diego, CA), and MacKinnon all supplied at least one RBI. Hartmann also launched his second homerun of the year in the second inning while Joseph Policastro (Hauppague, NY) followed with a RBI hit to make it 7-2. Merchant Marine pushed its advantage to 9-2 in the third with a perfect suicide squeeze bunt from Thomson as well as a double steal that resulted in Grant Foley (Butler, PA) crossing the plate.

The Mariners piled on six more runs in the fourth frame with the first three of those runs coming on bases loaded walks. Collins doubled down the left field line to plate two runs he, along with Stadele and Hartmann, had three RBIs in the game. Nathan Slusarczyk (Woodbury, NJ) pitched five innings, giving up just four hits, to earn his first collegiate victory. Jeff Suciu (Zanesville, OH) struck out the side in the sixth and Christopher Hinds (Independence, OR) worked a 1-2-3 seventh to complete USMMA's double header sweep.

The Merchant Marine baseball team returns to action tomorrow for a double header at Purchase State.